Photos: Training With Marines in Africa

MAPUTO, Mozambique — When blowing up land mines for military training is accompanied by a goat sacrifice, the cultural divide between the U.S. and the rest of the world looms large. Yet more and more the job of U.S. troops abroad is to bridge that gap in the service of peacekeeping by training local armies.

As recent developments in Libya have shown, in some parts of the world the U.S. is loath to put its own troops into action, and having soldiers trained by the U.S. in countries near conflict areas like Somalia is an ever-more-appealing alternative. The future of Iraq depends in part on whether the American efforts to train the Iraqi Army have succeeded. In Afghanistan, the withdrawal of American troops hinges on the same tactics, an ongoing mission of creating a viable Afghan Army.

Operation Shared Accord, a goodwill exercise between the United States Marines and the Mozambican military, is a snapshot of this kind of training. The exercise is part of an ongoing program of the U.S. Marines Corps, which has taken place in other African countries.

"I do believe we’ve seen increased attention to this area," says Col. Burke W. Whitman, speaking of cultural sensitivity and its ability "to thwart the development of hostile actions and hostile intents towards the United States."

Military cooperation in Africa also has the added benefit of keeping the U.S. relevant in countries that receive significant investment from the Chinese government. The rising influence of China, which has committed significant resources to African countries, including Mozambique, is a growing concern for American foreign policy officials.

Wired.com was on the scene in Mozambique to view one of these training events firsthand.

Above: Members of the Armed Forces for the Defense of Mozambique (FADM) and U..S Marines demonstrate infantry tactics before an audience of Mozambican and American officials.

Photo: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com.

Though the Mozambican flag sports a picture of an AK-47, the country has been peaceful for 20 years.

Nevertheless, despite being ranked 165 out of 169 on the U.N.’s Human Development Index — two rungs down from Chad and more than a dozen below Rwanda — Mozambique has previously sent detachments of soldiers on international peacekeeping missions to Burundi, East Timor and Sudan.

The recent events in Libya have shown that American politicians are wary of committing troops to war-torn regions, and are relying on regional allies to fill the void. While the Mozambican army is unlikely to play a lead role in any peacekeeping operation in the short term, the U.S. invests in training programs with the hope that situations like the conflict in Somalia could be mitigated by more local allied troops.

Above: A hand-to-hand combat drill during Operation Shared Accord.

Photos: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com.

When its decades-long civil war ended in 1992, Mozambique's countryside was riddled with land mines. The Mozambican government has largely relied on international NGOs to assist with removal of the mines, and its military is only now developing expertise to take on the task independently.

After years of the grim work of detecting and removing improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Marines have become steely-eyed experts at ordinance removal. Veteran of those conflicts shared their knowledge with Mozambican soldiers in drills like the one depicted above.

The mines used during this exercise were dummies, but the detonations, which used bricks of plastic explosive, were very real. The two soldiers in blue body armor are carrying fuses used to ignite the plastic explosive.

Photos: Courtesy U.S. embassy in Mozambique.

As in counterinsurgency, officers and civilian attachés try to ensure that their actions don’t violate cultural norms and alienate the population. They meet with local leaders to gain their support, seeking guidance about navigating cherished customs and ensuring that the powers-that-be support the Marines’ mission.

In the case of Operation Shared Accord, that cultural immersion included attending a traditional animal sacrifice offered by community members to bless the operation.

Marine Col. Burke W. Whitman pointed to the importance of a “cultural day” that was held during the exercise. For the event, Marines and Mozambican soldiers competed in sports, danced, played music and were encouraged to connect on a personal level.

Mozambican army Lt. Fernando Hassan Mohamed Jr. says that the learning goes both ways, and that the Americans can learn a great deal about how Africans approach peacekeeping operations.
"Generally an African is not going to make a decision himself," says Mohamed, "He is going to make a decision with his community. The Americans have this obedience mentality where the general just says what to do, and everybody carries out orders."

Above: Marines and soldiers of Armed Forces for the Defense of Mozambique look on, as traditional religious perform a ritual sacrifice to bring good luck to their joint operation.

Photo: Lance Cpl. Jad A. Sleiman.

During Shared Accord, soldiers practiced the methods of winning the hearts and minds in poor communities, helping to refurbish schools and deliver medical care. All told, the operation provided health services to 2,500 Mozambicans, including HIV testing and education. Services related to HIV/AIDS are especially important to Mozambique, where the government estimates that 11.5 percent of the population is infected with the virus.

Above: Mozambican soldiers and U.S. Marines held a dedication ceremony for an elementary school that the Marines helped refurbish during Operation Shared Accord.

Photos: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com.

Relations between Mozambique and the United States became somewhat strained when Wikileaks released sensitive diplomatic cables. Some of those U.S. government communications described high-ranking Mozambican officials as corrupt and accused them of turning a blind eye to a surge in drug trafficking within their borders.

On top of that, President Barack Obama has designated one of Mozambique’s wealthiest businessmen, Mohamed Bachir Suleman, a “drug kingpin,” and barred American companies from doing business with him.

This balance of aid and distrust is struck between the U.S. and many countries where programs like Shared Accord are enacted, like training endeavors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The diplomatic dance is far removed from the camaraderie seen on the ground between the Marines and the local military, where goodwill can still be uncomplicated.

After the drawn-out engagements in the Middle East, U.S. citizens may have lost their taste for ground operations abroad. If so, then the future of the American military may be more about this face-to-face diplomacy and education than combat operations.

Above: U.S. Marines celebrate the reopening of a school they helped refurbish.